Rent relief for Cal Expo

May 23, 2007

The California Exposition & State Fair Board voted on Tuesday to grant the Sacramento Harness Association's (SHA) request for reconsideration of rent relief for the 2007-08 racing seasons.

"Today�s vote certainly helped stabilize the industry, " said Ralph Scurfield, president of SHA. "I think the horsemen are very pleased, as the uncertainty has really been costly. I think a lot of the owners didn't know what was going to occur and so their feeling was--if I'm going to have to move anyway, maybe I better be looking now. With this uncertainly behind us, we can now move forward with Cal-Expo and the California Harness Horsemen�s Association and focus on continuing to grow the industry. That's what we're looking to do."

With overwhelming verbal support provided by members of the Cal-Expo staff to its board of directors, the board, after voting against the SHA proposal offered at the April meeting, this time voted five to three in favor of Sacramento Harness Association (SHA) continuing on in its third-year term through July of 2008.

In having their proposal agreed upon, SHA will continue to pay the same rental amount of $2.1 million for the upcoming racing year, as it paid for each of the first two years of the contract. The original contract had called for the rent to climb to $3.7 million for the third year.

"We didn't feel it was a good business move for Cal-Expo to take over operation, nor in the best interest of the state, as we are a state agency," said Brian May, Deputy General Manager of the California State Fair. "We would have to have hired 75 more employees, which would have meant increased salaries. With increased salaries come reductions elsewhere at Cal-Expo. And if there's no 2.1 million coming in from SHA, which is a part of our budget, then it just doesn't make sense to run the meet. It was in my opinion to our board that we strongly consider keeping SHA," May concluded.

May wasn�t the only person on behalf of Cal-Expo to offer its reasoning and support to have SHA continue to operate the meet.

�We could have run the meet with the same efficiency," said Norb Bartosik, General Manager of the California State Fair Board. "But it would have been an uphill battle based on the numbers and the scenarios. There was one other interest (Capitol Racing), but they couldn't pay half of the 2.1 million that SHA is going to pay. I'm all for SHA, as well as keeping the harness industry viable at Cal-Expo--it's the best scenario," Bartosik finished.

"We were aware of the original deal, but we have to have income for Cal-Expo," said Kathy Nakase, chairperson for the board. "We never felt the partnership with SHA was in jeopardy. We know we are partners, we aren't adversaries. There was a commitment on the part of the board to work with SHA. We evaluated everything, and in realizing that SHA is a partner, we wanted to make it fair for everyone, so as to allow it to work out for the best for everybody," Nakase finished.

�The vote today assured the continued operational success of SHA for the future,� said Dave Elliot, assistant general manager of racing for Cal-Expo.

For Sacramento Harness, the results of the vote couldn't have been any better.

SHA began operation at Cal-Expo in September of 2005. They are currently in their fourth meet of operation. Each successive meet has shown significant gains in handle. Current nightly average handle for the ongoing meet is $945,000 per card. (Scott Erlich for SHA)

« Back